TITLE: The Past is Red
AUTHOR: Catherynne M. Valente
160 pages, TorDotCom Publishing, ISBN 9781250301130 (hardcover, also in e-book and audio)
DESCRIPTION: (from the Goodreads page): The future is blue. Endless blue...except for a few small places that float across the hot, drowned world left behind by long-gone fossil fuel-guzzlers. One of those patches is a magical place called Garbagetown.
Tetley Abednego is the most beloved girl in Garbagetown, but she's the only one who knows it. She's the only one who knows a lot of things: that Garbagetown is the most wonderful place in the world, that it's full of hope, that you can love someone and 66% hate them all at the same time.
But Earth is a terrible mess, hope is a fragile thing, and a lot of people are very angry with her. Then Tetley discovers a new friend, a terrible secret, and more to her world than she ever expected.
MY RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
MY THOUGHTS: In The Past is Red, Catherynne M. Valente’s novella-length expansion of her short story “The Future is Blue,” Tetley Abednego navigates life as the most hated girl (and later, woman) in Garbagetown with a combination of complacency and curiosity. Tetley’s first-person narration is engaging, reminding me of the way older people who are not accustomed to visitors will enthusiastically share their life story. Words and scenes come out in a rush of lush detail interspersed with moments of deep introspection or pain or longing for what has been lost.
Tetley does not waste time or energy on longing for what was lost in the collapse of civilization precipitated by the rising of ocean levels – she and her contemporaries call those who lived before the rising waters “fuckwits” and blame them what happened to the world. And yet, as the novel goes on, it becomes apparent that some things are ingrained in human nature and will never change. Regardless, there’s a certain amount of curiosity about life pre-flood evident in the details Tetley shares, such as when she discovers a long-lost award for “best wife.” She may not be able to mourn a world she never knew, having been born a generation or more after everything flooded, but she can certainly express interest in it while she describes the world she actually inhabits.
The fact that Tetley exists as a social outcast in her own world colors the way she describes it. She tells us several times that Garbagetown – the former Pacific Ocean floating garbage patch that has solidified enough that people can live on it – is the most beautiful place on the Earth. I can’t help but feel her outcast status infuses her opinion with a certain amount of nostalgia for something that never really was. The first arrivals on the patch sorted the trash to create districts (“Candle Town,” “Electric City,” “Aluminumopolis,” and so on) that have become somewhat rigid and codified and even judgmental of each other. Cycles of “haves and have-nots” repeat even in places where people have truly little.
The first half of the novella is comprised of the original short story, which I had never read, and introduces us to Tetley, her estranged family, her first love, and the society around her. We never get to see the event that turned her into the most hated girl in Garbagetown, but we do get to see the aftermath and her on-going punishment. Valente doesn’t spell out the worst of it, but plenty of violence is done unto Tetley throughout the first half of the book – violence she must accept humbly, and which someday could result in her death. It’s a tough dichotomy to get used to – Tetley’s clearly enthusiastic personality and the way she draws into herself when she gets visitors, not knowing what will happen and if this will be the time they kill her.
The second half of the novella is narrated from a later vantage point in Tetley’s life. Her enthusiasm for telling her story is still the same, but she’s learned more about the world outside of Garbagetown and has a new place to live. This expansion of what she (and therefore we) knows allows the story to breath and prevents it from becoming repetitive. It also allows a peak into Tetley’s dreams. Valente allows Tetley to mislead us a couple of times, describing what she wishes would have happened before telling us what really did. I don’t think this quite makes her an unreliable narrator, but it did make me question some of the narrative – which I think was the author’s intent. Tetley is still convinced that what she did, while devastating to her fellow citizens, was the right thing to do to save them from a worse fate. Nothing in the book directly contradicts this belief, but when Tetley is faced with making a similar choice will she decide the price she’s already paid is worth making people hate her all over again?
The Past is Red is more than just a look at the world post-climate-change. It’s a rumination on acceptance, complacency, curiosity, and the ways in which knowledge can be freeing or can be a burden.
I received an Advance Reading Copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. THE PAST IS RED will be published on July 20, 2021.